John McMahon, 46, of Surfside, tries on a new knitted cap from Knots of Love in the Cancer Infusion Center at UCI Medical Center Monday. McMahon has been fighting tonsil cancer since September, lost his hair in October and has been covering his head with hats ever since.

John McMahon, 46, of Surfside, tries on a new knitted cap from Knots of Love in the Cancer Infusion Center at UCI Medical Center Monday.

Christine Fabiani started Knots of Love in 2007 to give handmade caps to cancer patients. It also donates caps to burn victims, brain surgery patients, head trauma patients, and individuals with alopecia (hair loss). Since Knots of Love's inception in June 2007, it has donated more than 134,000 caps from a network of more than 1,000 volunteers.

A basket filled with Knots of Love caps sits in the Cancer Infusion Center at UCI Medical Center Monday.

Most of us cannot wait to leave a hospital, but Christine Fabiani walks into UCI Medical Center like Little Red Riding Hood toting her basket full of goodies.

This is no fairy tale. She’s heading to the infusion center where cancer patients receive chemotherapy.

For John McMahon of Surfside, it’s a four-hour appointment once a week to fight cancer of the tonsils. He seems like a once-in-a-while cap kind of guy ordinarily, but now that he’s lost his hair, he wears one most of the time.

He’s pleasantly surprised that Fabiani is giving some away, and particularly pleased to find one in brown.

“Your head gets cold.”

Fabiani, 53, has been making and giving away handmade caps since 2007. She’s the founder and driving force behind Knots of Love, a Costa Mesa nonprofit that has given away more than 145,000 caps.

That’s a lot of heads covered.

•••

Fabiani has not had cancer, but helping those who have has become her mission.

After her two sons were grown she went back to crocheting and soon gifted all her friends with scarves and afghans.

Her son asked her to make him a cap, and although her first effort would have fit a bowling ball, her technique quickly improved. Pretty soon all her son’s friends had caps too.

Then a friend and cancer survivor mentioned how much she would have appreciated a soft, warm cap while she was undergoing chemotherapy.

That was all it took.

When Fabiani wanted to donate her hats but couldn’t find an organization to take them, she started her own.

Even she has been surprised by the results.

“I had no idea my passion would affect so many. … I had no idea what a profound effect it was going to have on people who make the caps.”

People who received caps as patients now make them. Some who made them now receive them.

Kris Sirca, a lifelong knitter from Fullerton, empathizes with those going through chemotherapy because 30 years ago she survived breast cancer.

“Your hair is your crowning glory. … It’s there one day and then it falls out in these huge clumps. It’s traumatizing and horrifying.

“It’s about loss of control. The reality smacks you in the face. It’s such an outward manifestation of what’s happening inside.”

So Sirca began knitting caps for Knots of Love. Then she began volunteering each week to help pack and ship caps. She joined its board of directors.

Sirca says giving is its own reward. She knows how much it matters when someone you don’t even know sends you a gift just to make you more comfortable.

Now she is battling cancer again herself, facing two years of radiation and oral chemotherapy. She says she woke up from brain surgery thinking about those caps.

“I thought: I know how to make them and I know how to get them, so that’s not going to be a problem.”

Sirca favors caps with a little flair. Look for her to sport a hat with a brim, a button or maybe a jaunty flower.

She’ll be the woman with the busy hands – making more caps for strangers.

•••

Six years ago, Fabiani posted a map of the U.S. and began to add a red heart for every cancer treatment center, hospital or oncology office served by Knots of Love.

Within one year, every state had a heart.

Now the map is also dotted with purple hearts for each veterans hospital receiving caps.

“If there is someone out there who has a bald head and we can’t cover it right away, I feel really bad,” Fabiani says. “I feel the need to cover their head.”

The nonprofit donates more than 3,000 caps each month to 422 treatment centers across the country. As many as 1,000 volunteers nationwide knit caps and ship them to the Costa Mesa office for distribution.

Ask Fabiani how all this happened and she offers a simple answer:

“It just grew.”

That passive tense is deceptive because women who volunteer have serious organizational skills. Multi-tasking mavens, they could easily rule the world. Fabiani honed her skills earlier as president of the Adoption Guild of Southern Orange County.

Knots of Love is run via volunteers and donations because each hat costs the organization about $10. It has grown into Fabiani’s full-time job and she serves as its paid director.

Now she’s learning about promotion.

Fabiani was voted the Angels’ 2009 People magazine All-Star for Knots of Love, and the organization’s logo inspired a line of jewelry carried at Sears. Knots of Love has a booth each year at the OC Fair, and a kids program encourages youth groups to make scarves for donation.

Knots of Love hats were worn by a cancer patient character on “The Young and the Restless” and “Parenthood.”

She admits that at first, it wasn’t easy walking into treatment centers, where patients often understandably look sullen or forlorn.

“But then you see them smile because you’ve given them something. … At that moment, this is so wonderful. … We really put comfort into the word ‘cancer.'”

What’s surprising is how personal she makes it.

Fabiani tracks every cap she receives. Each new volunteer receives a welcome package.

She writes thank-you notes to every donor and calls to tell every knitting or crocheting volunteer where their caps were donated. She even takes special orders for colors or styles.

“There’s such a huge need, and this is something so simple that helps in so many positive ways.”

She has compassion covered.

Chemo caps must only be made from specific kinds of soft yarns. For patterns and information, visit knotsoflove.org

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